Director of Federal Contract Compliance from 2009 to 2016 during the administration of Barack Obama. Prior to joining the Department of Labor, Shiu worked as Vice President for Programs at the Legal Aid Society-Employment Law Center in San Francisco. She worked there for 26 years. Shiu also worked as an associate at the law firm of Pillsbury, Madison & Sutro.

In 1982, Shiu received her J.D. from the University of San Francisco School of Law and in 1979, her B.A. in Political Economy of Industrialized States from the University of California, Berkeley. Born in Chicago, she is half Chinese and half Irish, and is the daughter of Joan Pierce Shiu and Mr. Shiu.